January 16, 2017

It's getting a little harder for critics to raise that tired nepotism argument now, as UCLA sharpshooter Bryce Alford (son of Bruins coach Steve Alford) has been named the Pac-12 Player of the Week. It is Alford's second career Pac-12 Player of the Week award, as he also was previously honored on January 11, 2016.

Alford averaged 26.0 points behind 57 percent shooting from the field (17-30) and behind the three-point arc (12-21) in UCLA's road sweep of Colorado and Utah. It marked only the fourth road sweep of the mountain schools in the six seasons since the league expanded to the Pac-12 in 2011-12 (UCLA - 2013, 2017; Arizona - 2014, 2015).

Alford erupted for a career-high 37 points in Thursday's 104-89 win at Colorado, tying the UCLA program record with nine 3-pointers on 14 attempts against CU. His 37 points were the most by any UCLA player in a road game since January 2003 when Jason Kapono had 44 at Washington State.

Alford added three more triples and went 6-of-12 from the floor en route to 15 points in Saturday's 83-82 victory at Utah.

Alford is the active career leader among Power 6 leagues with 278 three pointers and 1,702 points, ranking third and 10th overall in NCAA Division I in those categories. This week, he climbed into the Conference's all-time top 10 in made threes and passed Eldridge Recasner into 57th place on the league's career scoring list.

The Pac-12 Player of the Week award is based on voting conducted by media who cover the league.